In an open letter issued in late August, 53 religious leaders, mostly Protestant and Catholic, called on the U.S. to stop using airstrikes against Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria and instead seek more peaceful means to resolving the human rights atrocities there. But Republican party officials and other prominent Christians, Catholics and Jewish leaders have pushed for more forceful U.S. military action in the region.

Richard Nixon's helicopter once landed on the back lawn so the president could play a round at the nearby Lakeside Golf Club. Lucille Ball and Jack Benny drank and gossiped at the holiday parties in the living room. And the homeowner, Bob Hope, tried...

Cadet Christian King Beckler, son of Benjamin and Mollie Beckler of Burbank, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on May 25.
He is now serving as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Aviation branch at Ft. Rucker in Alabama, receiving...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) is accepting applications for nominations to the United States military service academies.
The deadline to apply for a nomination is Nov. 1.
Schiff, like all members of Congress, can nominate qualified high school students...

Hundreds of Burbank residents flocked to the McCambridge Park War Memorial on Monday to honor U.S. military veterans for generations of service to the nation.
Sponsored by the city and the Burbank Veterans Committee, the event began with a flyover by...

Fred Phelps, the founder the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. who was known for his fire-and-brimstone anti-gay public protests — as many as 53,000 of them since 1991, according to church officials — died March 19 at the age of 84.
Q: What do you think will be his legacy, or impact on religion in 21st century America?
Fred Phelps was a man who had zero positive impact to the history of Christendom.
His unpalatable brand of Christianity was valid fodder for critics of any...

Bits and pieces from the local sports scene.
Burbank football team comes back in tournament: Despite dropping its first game in the Southern California Municipal Athletic Federation flag football championship, the Burbank Fighting Irish battled back.
Following the loss, the team of fifth- and sixth-graders won the next three games in the competition Dec. 17-18 in Pasadena to capture the consolation title, finishing with a 3-1 record.
Competing against teams from around Southern California, the...

Burbank resident Aaron Rifkin was awarded a scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year from the Freesom Alliance Scholarship Fund.
The scholarship is awarded to sons and daughters of military service men and women who have been prisoners of war, missing in action, permenantly disabled or killed during a mission or training accident.
Rifkin’s father, Jeffrey Rifkin, was serving in the Army as a lieutenant colonel when he was killed in a vehicle accident. Jeffrey Rifkin served as a family...

U.S. Military Photos

While some had no choice but to stand due to a sell-out, standing-room-only house, even those with seats at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre took to their feet in a standing ovation following the Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre’s “Dance in the USA” performance Friday evening.
The show, created and directed by PBDT’s Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer Natasha Middleton, with the assistance of Edward Arno, saw the Burbank-born dance company, formerly known as the Media City...

America spends more on its military than any other country. U.S. military spending in 2012 was $682 billion, which is $516 billion more than incurred by China, the next biggest spender. This means the U.S. has the most technologically advanced and best-equipped armed forces in the world.
Attempts to cut the military budget are usually met with protest. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently warned Congress not to cut spending by $52 billion for the 2014 budget, citing "severe and unacceptable effects on...

Last week, Joe Puglia addressed in his column the incident where President Obama saluted two Marines with a latte in his right hand.
As if the salute were not enough, the video of the salute was uploaded to Instagram by a White House staffer, who apparently thought it showed the president in a positive light.
Dr. Joe summed it up. “If anyone should honor the importance of respect relative to a salute, it should be the president, the commander in chief...Of course the president’s actions were...

While President Barack Obama announced Friday that any military action responding to chemical attacks in Syria would be limited in scope, leaders in the Syrian-Armenian community in Glendale said they oppose any armed response from the United States.
“I don’t want my country to be that merchant of destruction,” said Zaven Khanjian, an Aleppo native and Glendale real estate agent who leads the nonprofit Syrian Armenian Relief Fund. “Whatever [the military action] is, it will...